iTunes to offer DRM-free music from EMI

updated 08:35 am EDT, Mon April 2, 2007

by MacNN Staff

DRM-free music on iTunes

At the special event in London on Monday, EMI Music announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital music available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions and that Apple iTunes Store will be the first retailer to offer the higher quality, DRM-free music. The Cupertino-based company will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads and without any digital right management (DRM technology). Pricing will be $1.29/?1.29/?0.99; however, iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/?0.99/?0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. The new higher-quality, DRM-free songs will be available in May.

Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/?0.30/?0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. Starting today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality, the company said. "EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players," the company said. "EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms."

"Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans," said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group. "We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."

"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

EMI also announced that is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.

EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.

EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).

"Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers," Nicoli added. "We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."

It's good news, although I'd like to see the UK (and European) price reflect the US price a little more. At 99p a track we'll be paying $2 a track for the premium tracks, despite them being exactly the same data with no import duties, production/shipping costs or (possibly) VAT.

Fortunately, as Steve mentioned, I've got the choice of sticking with the slightly less overpriced 79p tracks as I'm not bothered about the DRM and I'm old enough that my ears can't spot the difference between 128k and 256k AAC anyway :)

256kbps is finally here and that's really good news for me - finally I'll be able to buy something that sounds good! I just hope that they will offer Apple Lossless (AL) as well. I'd go for AL and then convert to mp3 for iPod, while keeping AL in iTunes for home Hi-Fi.

... will Microsoft be selling DRM-free music from EMI on its Zune store any time soon? Will it be in WMA format (a barrier to interoperability) or will they choose AAC/MPEG4? Hopefully we'll not go back to MP3.

I made the same comment on another board...
This is a nice start, and I hope a bunch of idiots don't start downloading DRM free music and posting it on their web site for their slacker friends to download.

Music is not free, and when these dweebs are confronted about it, they sheepishly admit that it is stealing but no one is really harmed. They can never offer a reasonable, justifiable reason for their theft.

NO I do not work for the Record companies, and I think they are slimy and charge way too much for their product ($.60 a song and maybe $5 an album is good). And the artists should get a much larger cut, BUT that does not justify stealing.

If you cannot afford the music, get a job, work harder save your pennies.

This is a little tiny baby step, so if the consumers manage it properly, there will be larger strides to compromise in the future.

Hello? This alleged bunch of idiots has done exactly that for ages. Welcome to the 'net. The step (not that "little tiny" if you consider all the consequences and what is at stake for EMI) can be seen as admitting failure (DRM) and givin the customer more incentive to buy the music rather than pirate it. The deal on iTMS so far just hasn't been cutting it for me. This decision finally makes the iTMS a serious alternative for my music purchases (which up till now have been limited to vinyl and CDs). They have gained at least one more customer.

I'm sorry, where does it say it'll be 256? All it says is 'twice the sound quality' (whatever the h*** that means). There's nothing specific about what kbps it is in (keep in mind that 128AAC was supposed to be better sound quality then 128MP3, so it doesn't necessarily equate to a double-rate.)

will Microsoft be selling DRM-free music from EMI on its Zune store any time soon? Will it be in WMA format (a barrier to interoperability) or will they choose AAC/MPEG4? Hopefully we'll not go back to MP3.

One would hope MS and the other retailers get the same deal (although I also wonder if Apple paid some extra cash to get this deal). As for WMA being a 'barrier' to interoperability, its only a barrier in the sense that Apple refuses to enable it for the ipod. AAC is as much a barrier as WMA is.

I really hope this puts an end to subscription services, or at least the ridiculous hype ("the future of digital music") given to them. I'm sure it has its place but to suggest as so many pundits have that it's the superior way digital music should be provided is absolute c***!

It was and always will be nothing greater than a money-grab by the industry and techs (aka Microsoft).

The rate is indeed 256 kbps, "resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording", according to Apple. I'm sure my ears won't hear the difference.

As for the WMA issue, that is a format completely controlled by MS, so why on earth would you expect Apple to support it? AAC is a part of MPEG4, so it's the better choice, since Apple is a member of the MPEG working group.

your hardware. I could see that when previewing songs with your laptop speakers you can't hear much difference. However, if you have a pair of studio monitors or a nice HiFi system, you WILL notice the upgrade. It would take a lot of hearing damage not to.

The clarity is really there, trust me. I go from recordings in Logic down to a compressed fromat like AAC and it's quite disheartening. The sound is more flat, less precise, and a little boring. I don't know of any AAC recording that had the beauty to make people's eyes well up, but you see it all the time in live performances.

If you're getting music to listen to while driving with the windows down or biking or jogging, then quality isn't all that much of an issue. When you're getting it to listen to in a cleaner environment, you will hear it.

I can see paying more for a higher quality product - but since there would be a higher coporate investment [music companies] then they are taking a loss_ I gues only in the short term if it pays off - they're probably guessing that folks will pay a little more for the higher quality product that they can do what they want with it - and at the same time 90% of those consumers wouldn't be able to tell the difference between one version and the next to save their lives anyway_

Ain't politics grand ?

And I suppose this gets Apple around their "iron-clad" statement on how "we're going to continue to sell music at the iTMS for $.99 per song" and still raise prices to appease the music industry gods_

While I applaud the direction Apple's going here, they (and EMI) certainly missed a huge opportunity to sell tracks that are otherwise identical to the DRM'd versions and see what it did for sales.

By doubling the size (I'm sure not gonna want to put those on my iPod nano or Apple TV) and upping the price, they've thrown in two new variables that will cause some users not to flock to them. I think it would have been great if they just announced they were dropping the DRM on EMI songs and (once they did) we could see a nice chart of all the additional EMI track sales.

This is an outstanding accomplishment both in
the realm of the whiny anti-DRM folks (like me)
and in the "quality" control department as well.
Folks who want lossless should buy a cd.
I think the Market needs a variety of choices and
experiments to deem what will work best between
consumers and labels. Steve Jobs seems to be one of
the few advocates for the consumer despite all the
DRM c***.

danviento is right. For most everyday listening, you really can't tell the difference between 128kbps AAC and 256kbps AAC.

But if you listen with high quality headphones or a high quality home HiFi system with good speakers, you will definitely hear the difference. 128kbps is flatter, less 'bright'. It takes out the low end and it REALLY kills the high end. Again, normally you won't hear this on crappy little iPod earbuds but with a good audio system you will notice the difference.

Testudo shut's down his Windows Vista wannabe mac equivilant, slowly rolls back in his chair and throws his hands behind his head. He sits, trying to come up with an original thought/argument(other than his usual "if it were MS in the spotlight, all you apple fan boys...). Meanwhile, his poorly assembled wannabe computer chair he purchased from a company that it is a subsidiary of Microsoft, gives way. The air compressed cylinder controlling the raise and lower functions bursts through the poorly manufactured seat of the chair and jams right up his @$$. Testudo remains still, trying not to move. The cylinder inching deeper and deeper (you get the picture). All along, Testudo grins with enjoyment, for this very situation is similar in feeling to what Testudo experiences on a daily basis. Moral of the story. He is angry and lonely and can only find pleasure in sticking/inserting things into his @$$. You wouldn't have anything better to do than troll MacNN if this was your life. Have sympathy for the guy. Embrace his awkward obsession. Testudo, we don't know how it feels to insert things in our @$$'s (as you do) but we do feel your pain. Write on Testudo. We are all laughing with you (as far as you know).

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